Before Heather Garrettson’s mom was diagnosed with cancer eight years ago, she had never thought of becoming a nurse.
“I had been around nurses,” she said. “And I always kept in touch with the nurses that had helped her.”
Since her mother’s death, Garrettson said she became closer with the nurses who took care of her mother.
“They’ve become family,” she said.
After witnessing how nurses had helped her mother, Garrettson, now a second-year MSU College of Nursing student, didn’t worry about low pay or long hours. She realized then that she wanted to become a nurse because she enjoys meeting and helping people.
But there are not enough eager people like Garrettson to meet the nationwide need for nurses, said Emily Wilson, an MSU nursing instructor.
“The nursing shortage is real,” she said.
Wilson teaches a class that gives nursing students the opportunity to experience real-life nursing at the Ingham Regional Medical Center, 2727 S. Pennsylvania Ave. in Lansing.
“I chuckle because the managers are always coming up and talking students into staying after they graduate,” she said. “There are several open spots on this floor now. It takes a lot of nurses to staff a ward like this.”
Wilson said both Lansing-area hospitals, Ingham Regional and Sparrow Hospital, are working hard to bring in new nurses.
“The hospitals are getting more aggressive,” she said. “Both hospitals in town are giving really wonderful orientations for new grads. The hospitals are doing a lot to bring students in.”
Students aren’t as enthusiastic in other nursing programs in the state, said MSU College of Nursing Dean Marilyn Rothert. She said she hopes more state funding will be put toward nursing programs.
“The difficulty is when all of the press dies down, there’s still no funding for it,” she said. “And there’s no vehicle for that compensation. Then you have to find a way to sustain them.”
MSU economics Professor Charles Ballard said in his view, there’s only one way to bring the supply and demand of nursing back into balance - raise their pay.
“When the number of nurses demanded is bigger than the nurses supplied, what you would anticipate is an upward pressure on the wage rate,” Ballard said. “I don’t really believe in shortages. There’s no reason to have a shortage for a long period of time. The way to fix it is to pay nurses more.”
Renée Canady, MSU’s director of the Office of Student Affairs, said more people might enter nursing if they had a monetary incentive, but it’s difficult to find large scholarships for students.
“What we tend to find right now is that there are a lot of small pots people can get $500 from here and there,” she said.
Canady said there are many scholarships for undergraduate nursing students.
State Sen. John Schwarz, R-Battle Creek, introduced a bill in October that was passed by the state Senate in May and is in the House. The bill would aid graduate students in Michigan nursing schools - students Rothert said need the help.
The state Department of Consumer & Industry Services also has established a scholarship. The department gave MSU $10,000 toward three students’ scholarships in December as part of the program, which doles out money to the state’s accredited nursing schools.
Christine Brown, a registered nurse at Ingham Regional, said the shortage of nurses may start at a more personal level.
“Sometimes nurses themselves tend not to support each other,” Brown said, but she encourages anyone who’s even slightly interested in nursing to try it out.
“A good thing for them would be to get into some type of medical training so they can get their foot in the door and see what they want to do.”
But Brown said there is a positive side to the shortage.
“Well, I know I will always have a job,” she said. “I can go anywhere in the United States and know I have a position.”
Nursing junior Lisa Landskroener said she, like some other nursing students, wasn’t sure she wanted to be a nurse.
“My aunt is a nurse, and she was telling me about it since I was a little kid,” she said. “I went back and forth for a while between different things. It’s something I just grew to like.”
Landskroener said despite some stereotypes, nursing is a difficult field because of the medical knowledge and understanding required.
“A lot of people might be turned off because it’s a hard program,” Landskroener said. “It requires a lot of time.”
While higher pay, more scholarships and more aggressive recruiting may attract new the nurses to the field, Garrettson said she finds the motivation in another place - within herself.
Just being there for a patient when they need it, she said, even just to listen, is what makes the job worthwhile.
“You make a difference in people’s lives,” Garrettson said.
“It’s rewarding.”
Amy Bartner can be reached at bartnera@msu.edu.
